Archives for August 2012

Instagramania has taken over! After being purchased by the largest social media network around, Facebook, it has inspired businesses and consumers in an innovative and new way. Instagram is simple; an individual or company such as Whole Foods, Bloomingdales or Nike (to name a few) have profiles and followers, much like Twitter. Instead of reporting their actions or advertising for their brand in writing, as is the case with Twitter, they use photos to tell their story. The company simply uploads a picture, adds a comment or hashtag to set the context of the post and voila! The photo is live and streaming for followers to view, like and comment on.
What do PR agencies like us have to do with this social media landscape that is 50 million users strong? In a word: everything. Instagram creates a new way for users to interact and communicate with their brands, and facilitates a new kind of conversation between the media and consumer that is unique and inclusive. Consumers are not only encouraged to take photos or create hashtags about their brand of choice, Instagram goes one step further. If a brand likes the photos you upload featuring their product or your comments mentioning their brand, they will ‘like’ your page or photo and possibly reach out to ask permission to use the photos on their Instagram profile. It is a direct interaction between brand and consumer that has never been done and its implications are far reaching.
Companies now have access to their clients long after they leave the store and the transaction has been completed. They can see how the consumer uses their brand, where they use the brand and how they talk and communicate about that brand with their friends, families and followers. In other words, Instagram is a marketing and PR gold mine. It strengthens the relationship and the connection between the brand and the consumer in such a way that should translate into both increased publicity and increased sales.

Pollock staff share their expertise in food and nutrition trends in the July issue of Idea Fitness Journal. Click here to read the full article, “10 Triggers that Changed Our Eating in the Past 30 Years” as well as the “Trend Hunters” sidebar by Pollock staff.

Cutting coupons and flipping through pages of books for recipes may be becoming a thing of the past. Retailers and food marketers have been posting deals and recipes on their branded websites and are now seeing the value of reaching their consumers through sites that offer group deals and creating apps for shoppers to use in-store.

“Food marketers have a huge opportunity to connect directly with tech-savvy consumers like never before,” said Darren Seifer, NPD food and beverage analyst, in a post on Progressivegrocer.com. “With a click of the finger on a smartphone or mouse, consumers are responding to marketing communications whether they’re downloading coupons and recipes or being loyal to a name brand.”1

The NPD Group said in its report last month that as the use of social media networks increases, frequent users tend to be more loyal to name brands, because social media interaction helps marketers develop relationships with consumers.

Coupons

To support the idea that shoppers are seeking deals and resources with apps and online, the NPD Group found that coupon use from digital sources is increasing.

Coupon apps are used by about 25 million Americans every month

More than half of U.S. consumers surveyed are aware of Groupon with one in five consumers receive emails regularly from Groupon

Online Recipes

While 55% of households report searching for recipes online, don’t toss your cookbooks out just yet – 83% of households say that they still use books that they’ve owned for at least two years. An NPD study released on July 9 found that the use of recipes once a week or more has increased from 37 percent of households in 2005 to 42 percent in 2001.2

It’s refreshing to know that social media is keeping coupon and recipe usage mainstream!